The invention relates generally to identity cards, and more particularly to identity cards which are read by infrared or light source readers.
Plastic identity cards are rapidly becoming the ignition key necessary to travel in today's computer-driven society. Plastic credit cards are replacing cash and checks for the bulk of commercial transactions. Even when a person wishes to cash a check, he must display his plastic check-guarantee card. To obtain cash from an automated teller machine, a person first accesses the machine by inserting his plastic identity card.
Many security systems rely on plastic identity cards. An employee inserts his plastic identity card to gain access through the door of secured areas of the work place. Many pieces of equipment will not work until a plastic identity card has been inserted indicating that an authorized user is present. Even the photocopier needs a plastic identity card before reproduction can be accomplished.
In one typical application, a plastic identity card carries a magnetic strip that is encoded with the appropriate identifying information. The identity card is inserted into a magnetic strip card reader. If the reader recognizes the proper code, the equipment becomes usable by the card holder.
Magnetic strip identity cards are typically used in automated teller systems. The identity card is inserted into the card reader which grabs the card and pulls it into the reader at a uniform speed. This is necessary because the information encoded on the magnetic strip must pass over the sensing station at a uniform speed to ensure accurate detection. If the magnetic strip passes over the sensing station too slowly, too quickly or non-continuously, the reader will not properly detect the information and deny access to the user. Magnetic strips are also subject to scratching and other damage which causes the user to be denied access.
In order to avoid the problems inherent in magnetic strip identity cards, many equipment manufacturers are turning to optically-read identity cards, particularly infrared or light source readable identity cards. A series of apertures are punched through the plastic identity card, arranged in a binary code sequence, each vertical column of apertures representing a single digit. The plurality of vertical columns results in a multiple digit identity number.
In use, the identity card is inserted into an optical reader. A light source on one side of the card is shone toward the card. Light passes through the apertures and a sensor on the opposite side of the card detects the light associated with each aperture. If the identity card is recognized by the reader, the card holder is authorized to use the equipment to which the reader is connected.
Optically read identity cards have advantages over the magnetic strip identity cards. The optically read identity card is stationary in the reader during use thereby negating the necessity of using rollers or the like to grab the identity card and pass it over the reader at a constant speed. The user simply inserts the card to a fixed point, the speed of insertion being irrevelant. Inadvertent scratching or destruction of the magnetic strip is also avoided, as well as the offset of random magnetic fields to which a magnetic identity card may be subjected.
The present invention is, however, directed at solving one disadvantage that optically-readable identity cards do have. Optical identity card readers are not manufactured with uniformly intensive light sources. Depending upon the intensity of the light source, it is possible, using conventional optically-readable identity cards, to have light penetrate through the body of the identity card and to be detected by the sensor. This results in an error reading by the card reader and the user is denied access to the equipment.
It is an object of the present invention to decrease, if not eliminate, light passing through the body of optically read plastic identity cards.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a plastic identity card with an inner core of material which decreases, if not completely eliminates, light passing through the body of the identity card.
It is an advantage of the present invention that optically readable identity cards constructed in accordance with the present invention can be used in most optical readers and these identity cards will be much more reliable than the prior art identity cards.